


Turtle Creek: The Fight at Comic Con

by saintsrow2



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: M/M, Turtle Creek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23237938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsrow2/pseuds/saintsrow2
Summary: A scene from the SM AU Turtle Creek 514-518 where Eddie and Henry fight at Comic Con.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 52
Kudos: 1076





	Turtle Creek: The Fight at Comic Con

**Author's Note:**

> This is a scene from the social media AU Turtle Creek and will not really make much sense without context. You can read the AU [here. ](https://twitter.com/turtlecreek_tv)

Richie is thinking about how badly he has to puke and how much he doesn't want to puke in front of thousands of people who might half recognise him and post it on YouTube, so he's not really paying attention as he lurches away from the theatre where the Turtle Creek panel was being held in search of somewhere to get five seconds to himself. The con floor is predictably crawling with people and the crush of bodies isn't making him feel any better, the heat and noise making his head swim worse than it already is. He is just trying to remember where the toilets are when he hears someone yell his name. 

Being spotted at a con where he's a special, featured guest with his face on a banner is not surprising. He barely registers that someone is yelling out to him because he's more concerned with getting away as fast as possible so he can go and have a quiet panic attack in an alley. He is poignantly aware of the fact he very well might have ruined his entire life and as much as he'd like to give some fans the time of day, he needs to be on his own. 

The guy calls him again and Richie realises it's not a fan at all. It's Bowers.

Bowers has been doing what, autographs? Richie doesn't know, but he's on the con floor and he's walking over to Richie and Richie's entire body has gone cold. He wants to run but there's a blockade of people milling around on every side and a crowd of ill-informed but well-meaning fans are half tailing after Henry, curious about what is going on. The fans are excited to see Richie. Bowers is too, but not for the same reason. His face is set in a knife-slash that could be a smile or could be the predatory warning snarl of an animal about to tear out your throat.

"What did I fucking tell you?" Henry howls. 

"Hey, man, how about we talk about this another time?" Richie says, talking so fast his words are running into each other like escapees from a burning building unable to get out single-file. "My people can call your people.”

He tries to get out of the way, taking the anxiety-inducing risk of shoving some people away from him to put as much space between him and Bowers as possible, but predictably, Henry doesn’t like that.

Henry’s hands close around the front of Richie’s jacket and yanks him back into place. His face is twisted with a sickening amount of hatred and the look on it is so poisonous that it pins Richie to the spot. There is an enormous, crushing fear, the same fear he felt when Henry first punched him almost two years ago. It was like making a joke and then finding out the punchline was the truth, the sick realisation that the world is more screwed up and twisted than you thought. 

Richie thinks  _ God, please, not again _ . He remembers the last time; the pain but the humiliation, too. The sheer fucking embarrassment of being reduced to being small, of being made to feel lesser. He had already been such a mess at the time, so painfully alone and afraid, in a kind of perpetual freefall towards a rock bottom he was both scared of and longed for, that when Henry had beaten him he’d had a hard time not believing he deserved it. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you do or don’t deserve it, because either way there’s still an angry man who wants you dead. Maybe that’s the punchline; nothing matters, you will always hurt. 

“What the fuck did I tell you?” Henry says. “Did you not learn your fucking lesson, you stupid fucking faggot? Do I have to keep teaching you over and over that you need to stay away from my family, you sick fuck?”

“I’m not… I’m not doing anything,” Richie says. His voice is trembling. When it’s hard to talk he feels weaker, like he’s without armour.

“You think I’m an idiot? You think I’m fucking stupid? I know what you’re planning, faggot. You get off on this, is that it? You fucking get off on having me teach you a lesson? Should I even be touching you right n…”

Eddie Kaspbrak collides with Henry Bowers like a rock being thrown through a plate glass window. He bursts onto the scene seemingly from nowhere and then here’s there, force and anger, voice louder than his body.

“Get the fuck away from him!” He yells, suddenly there and so explosively angry that it shocks everyone into silence. He pushes Bowers back, away from Richie, and Bowers takes a swing at him, and that’s when Eddie punches Henry Bowers in the face.

Richie gapes, too stunned to move, just watching as Eddie’s fist connects with the side of Bowers’ head with a  _ crack _ , Henry’s head jerking back as he yells out in surprise and pain. Eddie is vibrating with rage, angrier than Richie has ever seen, those vast doe eyes filled up with something fearsome. It’s like seeing wood burning from the inside out; the fire that shows through the cracks all the more bright and dangerous. 

And Richie is afraid, because the feeling that overwhelms him is so vast that it might as well be a fire that is spiralling out of control. As though he fell asleep with a hearthfire burning gently and awoke to a house ablaze, he is in terror of the strength of the love he feels for Eddie Kaspbrak, and even more he is afraid because he understands and believes, maybe for the first time, how much Eddie loves him back.

Henry punches Eddie back, right in the eye, sending him back reeling and Richie lunges between them, trying to stop Henry from getting another hit in. Eddie struggles back in front of him, pushing him behind, as if saying  _ no, I’m going to protect you _ .  _ It’s what I came out here to do _ . 

By now there are a lot more people trying to get involved, the shouts of Comic Con security as they try to intervene. Bowers keeps hollering, yelling about how he’s going to  _ fucking kill ‘em all  _ and trying to get in another hit, an angry animal with its claws out but Richie doesn’t feel afraid of him anymore. It vanishes, the fear of what he might do, the terror of being alone, it goes. It goes because he understands very keenly that Eddie will not abandon him and that Eddie will risk anything to help him, and they have each other’s backs. 

Eddie looks at him and he looks at Eddie and by the time the police are breaking it up all Richie can think is that he can say it, he can say it, he can say what he’s known this whole time because Eddie just told him  _ I love you _ . 


End file.
